In Which Karkat Owns A Box Full Of Movies
by GoddessCat
Summary: "No, it's not like that. For fuck's sake, can two people not watch movies without it meaning something else?" You run your hands through your hair, out of everyone that you could've had this conversation with, Sollux is the worst possible candidate. "I mean, if you put porn on right now that does that mean we're pailing? What kind of logic even is that."
1. Romcoms with Karkat

It's just an average day on the meteor. You've been hanging around with Terezi and the Mayor for a few hours, stacking cans to rebuild the library that met an unfortunate end recently, that was never cleared up, Terezi is still on the case. But right now Can town is getting pretty old, so you go for a walk to unwind.

You wander down some corridors you've only been down a few times, with the time you've been here you've probably mapped the entire Meteor by now, this place is huge but, you don't think there's anywhere you haven't been.

Although you don't recognise this place.

There's a quiet whirring noise that gets louder the further down the corridor you go, probably just the electronics or some shit. The lights up ahead of you aren't working, Karkat's sure to want a status report on this for some reason, so you go and check it out. Then you think you hear something move.

You stop.

You listen intently for a few moments, you're sure there's someone else here, thinking about it you haven't seen that fucking psycho clown since you got on this rock.

You swiftly walk along the corridor. As your eyes adjust as well to the dark as they can while you're wearing your shades, you notice there's a corner coming up, there's a dim light coming from around it.

You tiptoe to the edge of the wall, you can still hear something move every so often, it's probably nothing. The chance that Gamzee's showed up now is so small, but you can't help feeling a little uneasy. This is the exact kind of place you would expect to find him too.

It's cold in this part of the Meteor, you're shivering slightly.

You press yourself against the wall and slowly lean around it, there's a faint white light around a hunched figure on the floor, as your eyes adjust again you can just about make out who it is. You sigh in relief, a little too loudly, and the figure suddenly shoots to their feet and whirls around to stare at you.

There stands Karkat, he was sat on the floor with his computer, you can't see him very well in the dark, you can just about make out his outline from the light from his screen.

You step around the corner fully so he can see you, no point backing away now, he'll never drop you invading his privacy, best to get this over with.

"Strider? What the fuck do you want?" he sounds off, his voice is a little too quiet, which of course means normal people level.

"Just taking a walk dude." You exaggeratedly look around the corridor he's settled in, it's damp and there's water dripping from the ceiling not too far from where he was sitting, not the cosiest place to take a time out. "What are you doing here?"

"I was- none of your business!" he turns back to his computer and quickly clicks something on it before turning back to you.

"Well that's cool man, I can appreciate a dude's alone time. But don't you think you should save the porn for your own room?" He glares at you then, you can't see it, but you've gotten used to the way he hunches his shoulders and his head drops as if he's about to charge at you, nubby horns first.

He doesn't say anything, which is weird for him, he just turns and captchalogues his computer. You're both dropped into complete darkness and he walks off past you like you're not even there, back the way you just came. That must be a challenge, so you follow him.

You catch up and prod him in the shoulder, "so, what was that about?"

He grunts and swats your hand away, "what was what about? Can I not just want to be alone for five fucking minutes."

It was a rhetorical question, you know, but you can't resist. You're bored as shit and winding Karkat up is the best hobby you've found. "Nah man, you want some alone time on this rock you've gotta make a reservation."

Then he stops and looks at you incredulously, he looks tired. "just don't, okay? I'm not in the mood for this. Go play around in your stupid fake miniature city and get off my back."

"Whoa, defensive. I was just asking, out of pure curiosity, what you were doing in a dark hallway. That's not a normal thing people do." You shrug at him and after a few moments he just sighs and goes back to walking, you think that it's a bad idea to follow him, but, why the hell not?

After nearly a minute of wandering in silence, he speaks up again. "Are you following me?"

You keep your gaze trained straight ahead, "I might be, is that a problem?"

"Did Kanaya send you to find me or something?"

You look over at him then, and he's looking down at his feet. "Nope. Just happened to be walking around these hella rad hallways and shit and came across your sorry ass." You gesture to the walls to make your point, at least this one is lit and doesn't smell like stale water. "Why, anyway? Is something up?"

He folds his arms and hunches in on himself defensively, he's really expressive with his body language, and you can read him like a Game Bro magazine, so you know he's about to lie to you. "No. Everything's fine."

"If you say so. I mean it's none of my business why you were sat alone crying or whatever." You said it as a joke, but he visibly cringes and sniffles.

"How long were you stood there?" This time his voice is really quiet, quieter than you've probably ever heard him.

You play along with it, he sounds unhappy about something, and you can be a nice guy if you want. If Rose knew how nice you were being right now she'd applaud you, you're sure. "Long enough, so…" You trail off expectantly.

"So nothing. It doesn't matter. It's not like you of all people care, a human wouldn't understand." He sniffles again, and you wonder if he's actually crying right now.

"Nah come on man, I get all that troll bullshit, you've only explained it like three billion times."

He turns to you again, glaring daggers, his pace speeds up a little. "You are so insensitive, why the fuck would I tell you?"

"Because I'm here? I dunno dude, I was just asking. As much as I don't care, finding you moping around in these corridors isn't on my list of fun things to do." You're nearing the area that's been adopted as all your rooms, yours is still a ways to go, but Karkat's isn't too far now. You're kind of curious as to what would be up with him, and him being so stubborn and not telling you, is just making you more curious.

"Fuck you too." He says it, but it doesn't hold any venom, he just sounds exhausted. "Fine whatever, it's just- Gamzee. I know it sounds stupid, I just feel like I've done something wrong, like I'm not good enough."

You want to feel sympathy for him with something like that, but honestly, you don't get it. "Seriously? You're worried about the guy, the psycho, that killed a bunch of your friends, not liking you enough. Okay, I know I said I understood this stuff, but that's just stupid."

He growls at you, it's only quiet but you just pick it up, trolls sure are weird. "See I fucking told you you wouldn't understand!"

"I meant I understand about all that quadrant business, but you can't honestly take what you two had seriously? Even I could see that was a load." You're probably being an asshole right now, but maybe it'll distract him from being such a downer.

He doesn't say anything, just hangs his head and keeps walking, although he's slowed right down now and you have to actually stop when you walked off ahead so he could catch up.

After another minute of awkward silence he relaxes a little, "I know it wasn't anything serious, okay? I just mean, I thought I'd be good enough. And I'm not. I can't even explain it, you won't understand

"Good enough for what? Were you expecting some fairy tale romance with the muderclown? I mean, I can see it being some kind of shitty romcom. You're both sat in a your house, you go to the bathroom, and suddenly! there's a dead body in the bath tub! When you confront your pet clown he just gives this cute little smile and you d'aww at him, and forgive him, and smooch and happily ever after."

He makes a little noise you're pretty sure was supposed to be a laugh. "That sounds like the worst romcom plotline ever. You are terrible at this. Have you even watched any?" he's looking at you from the side, grimacing.

"Nope." He shakes his head at you in disbelief. "Hey, it's not my fault romcoms suck."

"You're serious. You've never watched even one?" he sounds angry, back to his normal self at least.

"Why would I?" You do not like the way this is going, he's probably going to give you one and tell you to watch it, which you won't, and you'll forget about it and lose it, then he'll get mad and shout at you.

You realise you've been walking for longer than you thought when you see him stop and open the door to his room. You expect the conversation to just stop, and him to slam the door in your face when he suddenly grabs you by the wrist and drags you into his room with him. He pulls you to the far side away from the door, pushes on your shoulders, and forces you to sit on the floor.

"Dude what are you doing?" you try to get back up but he has you pinned by the shoulders, he's pretty strong.

He stares straight into your shades so intently you are sure he can see your eyes through them, "you are going to sit here. And I am going to educate you."

"I am not. I repeat, not! Watching a romcom with you."

"Come on, this one's really good. There isn't a version of this on earth; this will teach you everything you need to know about quadrants and it is a masterpiece. There is comedy in it of course, it would be weak and boring without it, but there is a lot of fight scenes."

He backs off slowly, still holding his hands out like you're about to bolt, and then tentatively turns to his TV. He sifts through a large box for a few moments until he seems satisfied with something. You don't quite see what he' doing so you decide to have a look around his room, it's bare, just the basics with no personal touches. You made your own room feel like home, maybe this was just a troll thing.

You've never been in one of their rooms before.

You are shaken from your observations when he comes and sits next to you on the floor, you look at the screen and see the introduction to the film, close-ups of all the main characters smiling at each other and happy polyphonic music in the background, it's so pretentious, then the title scrolls across the screen.

'In Which Two Moirails Discover An Injured Seadweller And Both Fall Flushed For Him, Only To Find That They All Have Different Feelings For Each Other Over The Course Of Numerous Sweeps. Includes Multiple Cases Of Inappropriate Confessions, Too Many Quadrant Flips Than Should Be Physically Possible, A Lot Of Comedic Overacting And A Tragically Beautiful Ending'.

This is going to be a long-

"How long is this movie?"

He tilts his head, eyes not leaving the screen, "mmm, four hours? I think. Maybe five."

You groan dramatically and drop your head into your hands; this is going to be a long 5 hours.

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"So are they… Kismesies, Kismesises… Kismesi or whatever now… or what?"

He spares you a quick sideways glance and rolls his eyes before looking back at the screen, the movie's been on for over an hour and you're already so, so lost. Karkat has been "helping you understand" by pointing out the exact moment one of the quadrants, vacillates or whatever he called it.

This still doesn't help, there are only three main characters, and one that keeps showing up every now and again to break up the fun when the fights actually start to get interesting and you think, this time one of them is bound to be killed, but there have apparently been six quadrant flips already altogether.

"And what's with the guy who keeps cock blocking the hate-love birds?"

"That's their Auspistice. He's ashen for them." You give him a confused look that he must be able to read despite your shades, his shoulders slump, "that's another quadrant."

"No I know that. But-" You wave your hand at the screen, as if your gesture can translate all the confusion in your head into something more legible. "Why him? He's only just showed up. I thought it was another one of your confusing romance things. You can't just fall in-" more vague hand gestures, this time at Karkat himself, "some weird kind of alien love with someone in like, five minutes."

He raises an eyebrow, and just stares at you for a few moments, bafflement painted in his expression. Then something happens on the screen and he must realise what he's doing, because his eyes open a fraction wider and he snaps his head back to screen, he lifts his knees to rest his chin on them and mostly hides his face in his arms.

You're pretty sure you can see the faintest smile on his lips.

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"No. They're Moirails."

"I thought that was just like best bros."

"It is, sort of. See this is why it doesn't translate."

You make a little noise that means you're amused, some people call it a laugh, but it's not quite that. "Best bros that make out. Trust me, that translates."

"They're not making out! They're just… it's for the camera." You're pretty sure he's blushing.

"Oh so not all Moirails make out. Wait…" you fold your arms and nudge him with your elbow. "You made out with the clown, didn't you Karkles."

He gets up and starts pacing around the room. "It's not making out! It's pale kissing!" He's back to shouting at his normal volume, the movie is being completely ignored, which is fine with you, you don't really fancy watching two trolls macking on each other.

"So that's a yes."

He sighs and flops back in his spot, glaring at the movie as if it did something to personally offend him. "Nothing like that, just pale kissing. It's a troll thing, you wouldn't understand." He's covered his face with a hand but you can still see him blushing, it doesn't really show much in the dark since Karkat shut the light off half an hour ago. Only lit by the flickers of the screen, his face just looks a darker shade of grey.

"Dude, people kissed back on earth and it didn't mean anything like that, I understand. Kids kiss their parents, people kiss their friends on the cheek…" you shrug, and lean back against the wall again, crossing your legs at the ankles. Karkat doesn't look at you for a while after that.

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"Vantas, what rating is this movie?"

"I don't remember. I haven't watched it in a long time."

"Okay, well I wanna state this now. I do not. Want to watch. Aliens doing it."

"Will you stop saying aliens? That's really fucking offensive!"

"I only say it because it bugs you."

"Well as an 'Alien', I hope you know I could take that as black solicitation."

"As what?"

"You're black flirting with me without even realising!"

"Who said I didn't realise? I could just be doing it to get on your nerves." You let yourself smirk just a little to get your point across. "I mean, I don't wanna like, pin you up against a wall or any of the shit that's going on here." You point at the screen where the two, now, ex-Moirails are having a caliginous fight. "But it is funny when you're angry."

"Strider." He warns. He has that trademark glare with the bared teeth he gives you when you say something that drives him particularly crazy.

You just shuffle your ass on the hard floor and pull your legs so they're crossed, and focus back on the movie.

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"How long has it been now?"

"I don't know dude, this is your room. Don't you have a clock?"

"Only on my husktop and it isn't on. You're the Knight of fucking Time, I thought telling the time was a thing you could do."

"Nah man, not tell the time. It's like, I can just feel time as a whole. Even if I could I'm not your personal talking clock, dude."

"I never said you were! I just asked the fucking time. You know what? Forget it."

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"Okay. So what, the fuck, just happened there?"

"Do I have to explain every fucking quadrant flip to you?"

"Yeah when they happen to every character on the screen, I mean what the shit is that Auspi-whatever doing?"

"He got pissed off with the Violet blood's attitude towards him and now he's black for him. And the girl pities him from how badly their relationship's going, so now she's flushed for him."

You gawk at him; this is all so confusing. Why are you even here? When did watching a movie with Karkat become a good idea? What has happened to your life?-

He interrupts your inner existential crisis. "What?"

"For all you try and say there's more to troll romance than just hating someone or feeling sorry for them, this shit is shallow."

"Well, they're supposed to be sort of blurring the lines for comedic effect. I guess that might confuse someone who doesn't really know quadrants. You're not supposed to take it too seriously, it's just the basics are there."

"So, they're like kids in high school who just found something else they can do with their mouths."

He grimaces at the screen, then it contorts into an amused expression and he laughs quietly without turning to you, "Yeah, I guess so."

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"Dude I gotta piss."

"Fine, I'll pause it".

He goes to stand, but you rest your hand on his shoulder to stop him. You get up and call back to him as you head out of his room to find the nearest bathroom, "don't bother, just… tell me what happens. You're just gonna have to explain it anyway."

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"Wow, how long was I gone?"

"Half a sweep. I need to rewind it, there's no way even I can explain that."

"Nah nah, it's cool, why did we jump the timeline?"

He rolls his eyes at your phrasing, "because nothing really happens. There were one or two flushed/caliginous flips between the Kismesises but nothing major." He huddles up on himself. "The drones are coming."

"They put that in a romcom? I thought that shit was like, the scariest thing imaginable for you guys."

"Not the scariest in a normal sense, it's just. It actually happens. It's a thing we all know about. It's natural for it to be in a romance movie. About half of the Alternian originals I have have that as part of the plot." He turns to look at you, and he looks so small. "It doesn't make it any less scary."

You don't know why, but you have an overwhelming urge to comfort him. You don't think he's really that affected by the whole thing but-

You gently rest your hand on his shoulder anyway.

He tenses for a moment, and then relaxes enough for it to not be weird.

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"Dude, I said I didn't wanna watch trolls doing it!"

"Shut up, shut up! Neither do I. I'll just, fast forward it. Where the fuck is the remote?"

Watching him blindly grope around the floor for the remote while covering his eyes from the scene is actually quite amusing.

Honestly, you don't care about the awkward, obviously fake, sex scene. It doesn't affect you in the slightest after all the ironic shit your bro used to pull. It is however, really funny watching his reaction to it.

In fact, you hope he doesn't find the remote, because this is priceless.

Maybe you could nudge it further away from him with your foot without him noticing.

You take back everything you thought; watching movies with Karkat was the best idea ever.

You will definitely be doing this again.

Maybe next time you can find some well-disguised porn just to make him blush and splutter, see how long he'll sit there before he punches you and turns it off.

This is definitely a thing that needs to happen.

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"Holy shit."

"Yeah."

"So, she's how old now?"

"Sixteen sweeps."

"But that's only-"

"Around thirty four earth years, yes. She is a Rustblood. That is an average lowlood's life span. Well, that is actually pretty short, even for a lowblood. But it happens."

You just, stare at him. He has a blank expression and is just staring at the screen; he doesn't seem to be watching the movie though.

"And you're-"

"Seven."

You don't know if you should keep going with this, but now you're curious.

"And you'll-"

"Shut up."

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Karkat neglected to tell you that even though this is supposedly some kind of alien romcom, it's actually a comedic, romance, tragedy amalgamation.

The female lead is lying on a couch in her current Moirail's hive, she doesn't look very old, but apparently, trolls don't age like humans. Besides, it's only a movie, so the makeup probably isn't good enough to show it.

She is basically on the troll equivalent of her deathbed right now, her Moirail at the moment is the Seadweller guy they found near the beginning, and her ex-Moirail is their auspistice.

You didn't even know Moirail's needed them.

Maybe Karkat and Gamzee needed one.

You start forgetting about the movie, because it's just really depressing right now, and wondering what it would be like to be their Auspistice. You don't mind Karkat so much anymore, he is loud, obnoxious, shouty, angry, and you could go on. However, he's alright. He only gets into people's business because he cares, and he is so dramatic about everything that it's funny winding him up.

Gamzee though? You have never met him. Sure, you talked to him on Pesterchum a long time ago, but he's apparently changed since then.

It's not as if it matters anymore anyway, you don't know when Karkat last saw that damn clown, but you're sure it was a long time ago.

Also being an Auspistice is some kind of alien romance, and as much as this film is giving you ideas that you can just throw these titles around, you are absolutely sure what you feel for Karkat is not some delusion of love. How can that even translate into human terms?

This morning you thought Moirallegiance was easy to understand; now you're not sure you understand it at all.

Karkat had explained the shooshing and the papping before, and you thought it all sounded simple, you could do that no problem.

Now, you realise that it's something more; it's not just keeping someone happy and stopping them from hurting anyone by placating them. You have to actually understand them, be there for them no matter what, and let them be there for you, tell them absolutely everything.

There are no secrets in a Moirallegiance.

Before you thought Matesprits were like human dating, and Moirails were like best friends.

Now you think that Moirails are more like human dating without the actual physical stuff, Matesprits don't seem to really talk as much, it's more physical.

However, you're just human and you could be completely wrong.

This shit is so confusing.

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"It's over halfway now, only about an hour left I think."

"I don't think I've sat still this long in my entire life."

"You got up halfway through, and you've been fidgeting the entire time."

"I repeat. My entire life."

"Just shut the fuck up and watch the movie, this is a really good bit."

You shut the fuck up and watch the movie, although you doubt it's going to be a good bit with the mood the movies been giving off for the last hour or so.

The female lead kisses her Moirail and the Oliveblooded Auspistice and Jesus fucking Christ is there not one quadrant people don't kiss? Her Violetblooded Moirail takes her hand and sobs silently into her hair; she smiles and tells the Oliveblood to look after him.

Then she dies.

And they cry.

You glance at Karkat, and sure enough, he's crying.  
He's always so overdramatic, it's not as if it was even that sad. The two male leads hold each other and cry dramatically, too dramatically if anyone asks you, it kind of ruins the moment. Then they kiss, just a little peck on the lips deal, and you just know they're about to flip quadrants again.

"Matesprits?"

Karkat seems to jump, and rubs at his eyes quickly, then looks at you wide eyed and confused, "huh?"

"Those two, are they gonna be Matesprits now?"

"Oh", he slumps back against the wall and sniffles, "I think so, I haven't actually paid attention to this bit before"

Sure enough, as you watch they start talking about how life is going to suck without her, and eventually they confess their flushed feelings for each other.  
They promise their late Burgundyblooded friend that they will look after each other. It's all so sweet and heart felt you feel your eyes sting a little, your throat feels dry, you swallow, and the sound it makes in your ears over the quiet in the room makes you jump.

They're still talking about how they feel when you look over at Karkat, he has his knees pulled right up against his chest and his face is buried in his arms, he's not even pretending to look at the screen.

You watch him for a few moments, wondering if he just fell asleep or something, when his shoulders shake a little. When you listen to him through the sparse quiet sections of the movie, you can hear him breathing unevenly.

You sigh and he jumps but doesn't lift his head. You shuffle a little closer to him.

He is so openly emotional it kind of scares you; you're not used to seeing anyone emote so much.

He doesn't seem to react to you, not pulling away at least, so you shuffle a bit closer, then again. You didn't even realise how far apart you were, and that makes shuffling on your ass feel a little more awkward.

Once you're close enough you lean against the wall next to him, letting your upper arm have contact with him to let him know you're there, sort of anchor him, you hope, but the way he's sat you're sort of brushing against his side rather than his arm. You are not good with comforting people, so you just sit there awkwardly; watching the film for a few more minutes until he finally acknowledges you.

You hadn't realised how tense he was until he relaxes and leans into you slightly, it's kind of nice, you always thought he would be kind of clingy, and perhaps he is, but he's really warm and right now, you don't mind this.

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The last half hour of the movie seems to be really fast paced, the two male leads are now officially Matesprits, but they just had an argument, you haven't seen the Blueblooded Auspistice from the beginning for an hour and you honestly expected him to show up in that fight.

The Oliveblood left their shared hive and got into some trouble with someone from his past, now he's lying in an alley, bleeding to death.

His Matesprit goes looking for him to apologize, but when he finds him-

You can't do this anymore.

You try your hardest, but you just can't watch, you look away and try to think about something else, but all you can think about is quadrants and this damn movie, and why was this a good idea again?

Karkat shakes and sniffles, and godammit he's crying again.

He said he forgot about how sad this movie was earlier, and he offered to change it, you should have said okay, but you were too busy being amused by pissing him off.

Now he's upset and you blame yourself.

You look up at the screen in time to catch the Oliveblood tell his Matesprit that he forgives him, and it's okay, he was going to die before him anyway with him being a Highblood, he wouldn't go back and change anything.

'You have to take the chance and make the most out of what you have. Just go for it.'

You look at Karkat, still huddled up on himself and staring up at the screen from under his messy hair, and you shift. When you pull your arm out from next to you, he drops his knees so he's cross-legged and looks like he's going to shuffle away.

So you grab him, wrapping your arm around his back and resting your hand on his opposite arm. And pull him into you.

He doesn't tense up this time, just automatically slumps into you, resting his head on your chest.

When the Oliveblood dies in his Matesprits arms, Karkat just explodes from emotions and tears stream down his face. He latches onto you, wrapping both his arms around your middle, which leaves your hand resting on his side and you can feel his heartbeat in the palm of your hand.

He's still watching the film until the credits start rolling. When they do, he turns slightly to look up at you and reaches up to touch your face

You tense, thinking he's going to try to take your shades off and you feel vulnerable.

But he doesn't, instead he just runs his fingers over your cheek gently, and pulls his hand down in front of his own face to inspect his fingers, that is when you notice his fingers are wet, and you touch your cheek.

You were crying.

He looks at you and smiles fondly, and then just rests his head back on your chest.

"If you fucking tell anyone about any of this. I will tell everyone you cried at one of my 'shitty movies'."


	2. Karkat, Become The Movie Master

Watching movies with Dave has become a permanent thing since a few weeks ago.

People have been asking questions about it, but when you remind them that there's fuck all else to do around here, they just shrug and get back to their own pathetic lives.

Of course it isn't a big deal, but Sollux keeps asking you to do him silly little favours, you have an inkling that he's been hacking into your Husktop webcam or something, and you do them just because you can't be bothered with explaining yourself to him.

You don't even know what's going on here.

After watching all these movies Dave seems really interested in Moirallegiance, he's probably looking for some kind of Human friendship/Moirail mutation, and it has been nice having the company, so you'll humour him.

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"Alright, this one I get. Those two are Kismesises. She's flushed for that other guy, but he hates her. Which is why she brought him flowers and he burned them. But she can't be his Kismesis anyway because she already has one, that's cheating, right?"

"Mmh". You nuzzle into Dave's shoulder a little more, you're way too tired to even be thinking about movies right now, let alone watch them.

"Vantas. Are you falling asleep on me?" You ignore him. Maybe he'll shut up and let you go to sleep. "Dude. I am not your personal heated pillow. Plush as I might be."

He pokes you in the forehead a few times and you crease your face up, until you grab the offending appendage and go right back to falling asleep.

He doesn't make you let go.

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You're dreaming; it's a recurring dream that you've been having every time you watch a movie with Dave.

You're sat on a couch in a huge entertainment block, there's gadgets, cameras, speakers and all kinds of unidentifiable technology scattered around the room. There's some action movie on or something, the acting and effects are so terrible you know exactly who's there watching it with you.

You turn, and sure enough, there's Dave.

But he's not Dave.

He's older, and he has a suit on.

You close your eyes and turn your hands over in your lap, you brace yourself, opening your eyes again you look down, and yes, always the same.

Your hands are that vile shade of pink that humans wear.

You look up at not-Dave and he notices, turns to you. He still has the same shades as Dave, but you can tell he looks worried about you, apprehensive, like you're about to freak out and run away.

You smile at him in reassurance, and he smiles back, not holding it back like Dave tries to when he is actually amused.

He rests his arm on the back of the couch behind you and waves you toward him with the other hand, you shuffle closer and rest up against him. It feels so real.

He kisses the top of your head and you jump.

Every time the dream is a little different. The first time you had it you freaked out about it all and not-Dave reacted like you wouldn't expect Dave to, got up, held you and told you it was okay while stroking your hair, you both collapsed to the floor and he kept saying he didn't understand what you were talking about or why you were shouting.

You quickly learned to just go with it.

You wonder if Dave's been having weird dreams too.

When you wake up Dave's fallen asleep as well, his cheek resting on top of your head and his shades pressed up against your horn, they're probably digging into his nose.

You gently extract yourself from under him and lean him back against the wall, you already worked out that he's a heavy sleeper and he's lucky you don't hate him anymore, it would be so easy to do horrible things to him right now.

You should probably make sure his shades didn't cut him or something. He'll only blame you if they have.

You kneel up and rest one hand on the wall behind his head to steady yourself, slipping your fingers under one of the frames and lifting them slowly so you don't disturb him, you squint, because you still haven't turned the light on, but you probably won't be able to see even if he has cut himself.

Everything seems fine, there's slight indents where they've pressed in, but no skin is broken.

You go to put them back in place when suddenly Dave grabs your wrist and then you're staring into his naked eyes.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

You blink and can't speak, you've seen him take his shades off a few times, it's not like they're permanently glued to his face, but you've never seen him this close up without them, and he's looking at you like you've done the most horrible thing imaginable.

He glances up and lets go of your wrist, you slump back and drop his shades out of reflex, which makes them land back on his nose, if not a little slanted.

He doesn't look at you, just quickly gets up and leaves.

You don't know what you did wrong.

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"Okay, so what do you want to watch? I have romance, comedy, romantic comedies, action movies..." You rummage around in your box to see what else you have, "Well I don't know, I probably have something of every genre here."

There's no response, you can feel him behind you, looking over everything you've picked up, but he's not even giving you a hint of what he wants to watch.

"Just, choose something. I'm not a fucking mind reader."

Still nothing, you sigh and you feel him step closer and rest his chin on your shoulder.

"You are such a fucking creep Sollux. What are you doing?"

You think you feel him shrug, which is stupid because you can't see him.

"Whatever. Get off me would you?" You roll your shoulders to knock him away, he steps back and you look at him over your shoulder, he looks tired, but he's wide awake.

"Let's just watch anything. I don't even care. This was your idea dude." He flops back against the wall and slowly drops down onto his ass, he looks really bored, but that's exactly how you need him to be, he needs to sleep.

"Fine, how's this?"

He nods and doesn't even look up, you hit yourself in the forehead with your palm, you're not really in the mood for Sollux' shit today, but he's been awake for the last 3 days straight if what Rose said is right.

You've chosen probably the most boring film in your collection that isn't physically painful to watch, even for him.

You watch him from the corner of your eye as you kneel on the floor and get comfortable, even if he doesn't watch the movie it's not a big deal as long as it gets him off his computer and makes him tired.

There's a knock on your door, you guess it's Kanaya or Rose, checking if you managed to get Sollux to acknowledge your existence, so you shout to them to come in.

It's not the girls, it's Dave.

Sollux looks up at him, leans back against the wall and smirks. "Sup DV".

You're used to hearing him talk without a lisp now, but sometimes when he says little trademark things like that, you still hear it in your head as 'thup'.

"Oh sorry, didn't know I was interrupting your date, you should really put a tie on the door or something." He doesn't even look at you when he says it, he's facing you, but you can tell he's staring at Sollux. You're not sure if something's going on neither of them are telling you about or you're just being paranoid.

Sollux winks at Dave. "At least you knocked."

"Okay what the fuck." You interrupt. "Sollux, shut the fuck up. Strider, what do you want?"

Sollux does shut up and starts watching the movie, but he decides to turn and lean his back against your arm. You just take a deep breath in, and try not to shove him off you as hard as you can.

Dave's just staring at the two of you. You're pretty sure he's trying to look disinterested, it's hard to read his expressions.

"Well?" you prompt.

Sollux snorts and you try and elbow him in the ribs, but he's at the wrong angle and you just nudge his arm instead. He turns and smiles innocently up at Dave. "Don't mind me."

"Yeah whatever, it doesn't matter. Rose was looking for you or something." He folds his arms and turns to leave.

"She found me, it's sorted." You can't tell him it was about Sollux and that's why he's with you, because he's sat right here and you're not a complete asshole.

"Uh huh, whatever, I'm out." He doesn't slam the door, he doesn't even close it. You huff and get up to shut it yourself.

You peek outside just before you shut the door, Dave's long gone.

Good. You're not in the mood to deal with two insufferable pricks.

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"This one isn't half bad. Who knew you actually had some decent movies in that box of trash".

Sollux has been in your room for so long now that this is your third movie. He chose this one, after the first 'abomination disguised as a form of entertainment' he decided to actually get off his ass and help you pick.

He's also decided you're comfortable.

He's gone from leaning up against you, to laying with his head on your knee, and is currently laying long ways so his head is in your lap and his shoulders are digging into your knees a little, but it's okay because he needs to try and sleep and the floor's uncomfortable, you stroke his forehead in what you hope is a soothing gesture.

You were hoping he'd be so worn out from being awake all this time that he would have fallen asleep by now. You're starting to think you'll fall asleep first.

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"KK, can I ask you something?"

You must have been falling asleep because he startles you, you look down and he's looking up at you upside-down from your lap. "Sure, what?"

"First. Don't get pissed at me for asking, okay?" You roll your eyes at him. If he's saying that then of course whatever he's about to ask is going to piss you off. "What's going on with you and DV?"

Yeah, there was no chance that wasn't going to come up. "We just watch movies together."

He raises an eyebrow slightly, "what kind of movies?"

As soon as you open your mouth you realise what you're about to say and you close it again. Then think about how you can answer that without straight out saying 'romances'.

"I thought so."

"No, it's not like that. For fuck's sake, can two people not watch movies without it meaning something else?" You run your hands through your hair, out of everyone that you could've had this conversation with, Sollux is the worst possible candidate. "I mean, if you put porn on right now that does that mean we're pailing? What kind of logic even is that."

You can feel his shoulders shake when he laughs. "Would you like me to?" Then he abruptly stops laughing and looks up at you slyly. "Well, either offer is open."

He laughs even harder when you stand up and drop him onto the floor.

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" 'm tired, don' wanna go."

"Well you can't just sleep here." He defies you by pulling the blanket over his head and turning away from you.

About an hour ago you went and got a few pillows and blankets from your pile that Rose alchemised for you, you're not keen on sleeping on it because it's too soft, but it is nice to snuggle into right now.

"Fine, but I'm not staying on the floor with you, you probably kick in your sleep."

As you try to get up he shuffles more under the covers and grabs your arm, trying to pull you under too, he's so tired his coordination is all off and he's just weakly tugging at you.

You humour him and chuck the corner of the blanket over your head.

He quickly yanks you down by your wrist and kisses you, just a chaste kiss on the lips. He pulls away and you can just about make out his face with the light of the television through the thin blanket, he looks apprehensive, like he thinks you're about to yell at him.

You're too tired for Sollux' needy, bipolar hoofbeast shit right now, so you just sigh, push his head down to rest on your chest and lean back against the wall.

You probably fall asleep before he does.

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You wake up to a tapping sound.

When you pull the blanket away from your face Sollux immediately snaps his head up too look at you, then glances down at his Husktop, but it's not his, it's yours.

He quickly jabs at a bunch of keys and then closes the lid.

"Hey, I was checking your security. Did you sleep alright?" He hands it back to you and you open it to see if he left any obvious evidence of what he was doing, there's a bunch of network programs and half finished code on your screen, but your Trollian icon is open in your taskbar; and that's only open after you've gone online.

"Mhm, pretty good actually. Who were you messaging?" you hand him your open Husktop back, if he was really coding then he obviously isn't finished, and you might as well give him something to do, hopefully he did actually get some sleep.

He immediately starts typing and doesn't look at you. "No one, I didn't bring my computer with me."

You tilt your head to try and get his attention and he ducks away a little more to avoid you. "No, but you went on mine. I'm not stupid Sollux."

He doesn't say anything, you get up to turn the light on.

When you stand you look down at him and lean forward, you can see Trollian open on the screen, although Sollux hasn't logged you out because you can see him typing in grey.

"You're not messaging anyone, huh?" you cross your arms and he swiftly proceeds to close the window. At least he has the decency to look sorry for himself.

"It's not- I just- fuck." He hangs his head and nudges the Husktop away with a foot.

You sit in front of him and open Trollian, a conversation is open with Dave, you should've guessed.

You can't scroll up, it looks like Sollux has setup some kind of automatic history wiping program that that kicks in after 5 lines, you just manage to catch the gist of the last thing Sollux said before Dave's obnoxious red text kicks it off. He's using his own quirk at least, so you know Dave knows it's Sollux, they just seem to be having a normal conversation.

Aside from

TG: so...  
TG: you slept with him last night

"Sollux, what the fuck were you two talking about?" you don't look up at him, you're trying to decide between letting Dave know you're reading this, or trying to mimic Sollux' quirk and get Dave to give the game up, but how do you even reply to that?

"The same boring stuff we always talk about." A quick glance over at him confirms that he's not looking at you either, just staring down at the floor.

"Then tell me what this is about." You don't move, you make him come to you. He gets on his knees and half crawls toward you slowly and peers at the screen once he's close enough.

"Well we did."

You grunt, "I don't think that's what he means. What have you been saying to him?"

He sits again, this time closer, "I said we watched a few movies and fell asleep on the floor, what do you think we were talking about?"

"Why didn't you log onto your own account?"

"Geez KK, what the fuck is your problem all of a sudden? I just wanted to ask him something quickly, fuck".

You scrub at your face with your hands, "Quickly. That's why you setup a program to delete the messages. Because that's just something that automatically happens when you so much as look at a computer." When you drop your hands you're expecting him to be angry, but instead you're met with the face of a defeated Sollux.

"I didn't want you to know I was talking to him, if I logged on my account it would've been more wiping to do."

"But what were you-"

"It's personal."

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"I told you this movie was good."

"It's not so bad, the actors are terrible and the plot is just- what the fuck, most of the time. But sure, it's better than i was expecting."

You smile to yourself and look back at the screen, the female lead just confessed her flushed feelings for her Kismesis while he was making out with her Matesprit, which is awkward. More awkward for you considering you've got your head resting on Sollux' shoulder.

He laughs when they kiss, and you lift your head to look up at him, "what's so funny?"

"It doesn't matter, just kissing scenes in movies always make me laugh, they're so, fake." He's still smiling like he's heard the funniest joke ever told and can't stop laughing.

"I don't think so. How can they be fake when they're actually kissing? That doesn't make sense."

He turns his head to you, leaning back slightly so he can see your face better. There's something in his expression that you can't read.

He stays like that, staring – contemplating? – For so long that you open your mouth to ask him if his thinkpan's just melted when he answers you.

You don't know what answer you were expecting, but you weren't expecting to find out that Sollux doesn't taste like you had imagined he would.

He doesn't particularly taste like anything special, but whatever it is, it's nice.

His lips are soft, and once the initial shock has worn off that he's kissing you and you start to relax, he reaches a hand up to run his fingers through your hair and eventually pulls you closer to him by the back of your head, but he's not forceful, he's all slow, careful movements, and when he tentatively runs his tongue along your bottom lip he's got you so off guard and confused. Because you could never have imagined he would be this gentle with anything.

You part your lips for him and he takes his time still, licks along the slightly sharp edges of your top teeth, and when you reach your own tongue to meet his he swirls his tongue around yours and licks the underside of it before letting them glide together, occasionally pulling away and dropping closed mouthed kisses to your lips until it escalates and the whole thing repeats.

It feels completely different than it looks in movies, it always looks so rushed.

Now you think that every kiss you've ever seen in any movie was so boring and impassionate that you could laugh, if Sollux wasn't currently incapacitating your mouth.


End file.
